ATA Calls for Reliable Oil Supply
An American Trucking Associations official urged Congress and the Bush administration to implement a comprehensive plan to increase domestic oil supplies and ensure an affordable supply of oil for the nation’s 3.5 million truck drivers.
Speaking at a National Press Club press conference hosted by the group Consumers for More Energy, ATA Senior Vice President Tim Lynch encouraged Congress to implement policies that will reduce oil demand, accelerate the development of research and technology, prudently increase government oversight of the petroleum markets and increase domestic oil supplies.
“ATA recognizes that the solution to this problem is multi-faceted,” Lynch said. “We need a broad relief agenda that includes increasing domestic oil production to address the escalating cost of fuel and relieve the financial hardships of the trucking industry and all drivers.”
Lynch was joined at the press conference by the American Highway Users Alliance, National Defense Council Foundation, the National Grange and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.
The trucking industry is experiencing the highest prolonged fuel prices in history, ATA said, and according to Avondale Partners, in the first quarter nearly 1,000 trucking companies with at least five trucks failed, representing the largest number of trucking failures since the third quarter of 2001.
